


solar hands

by jaesquared



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M, Pastry Shops
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-21
Updated: 2019-12-21
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:16:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21887302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jaesquared/pseuds/jaesquared
Summary: Donghyuck is just a college student trying to train without having to use too much of his powers. But apparently that is not possible when you keep crossing paths with someone powerful.
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee
Comments: 8
Kudos: 25
Collections: DreamXmas 2019





	solar hands

**Author's Note:**

  * For [akaashigf](https://archiveofourown.org/users/akaashigf/gifts).



Their Abilities Management class is one of Donghyuck’s favorites.

No, it has nothing to do with his major, and also no, he doesn’t like using his powers. But doing the assigned activities always left him feeling his adrenaline high and active. The instructor evaluating his progress keeps his eyes on him as he finishes the task at hand. Donghyuck doesn’t mind.

_Fine motor skills…_

_Impulse control…_

_Decision making speed…_

So maybe the giddiness comes from 60% adrenaline, 5% anxiety from the anticipation of the result of the evaluation, and 35% from the sense of pride with the nod of approval from their instructor.

“Whoever finishes the set would be buying sushi.”

Another thing he likes about this class? It’s like he’s just playing games with Renjun. And maybe it was his breakfast (thank you, instant noodles), or maybe he just had a good stretch today. Or maybe the adrenaline got to Donghyuck’s head, corrupted it with manic thoughts of _I CAN DO IT!_ Whatever reasoning or excuses Later Donghyuck would come up with could never justify his exclamation of, “The loser buys sushi every time! It’s getting boring at this point. Maybe we should consider heavier consequences?”

That wasn’t too bad. It gets worse.

“The loser chooses a room, and duel with a superior.”

* * *

The room. Every person who chooses to challenge a superior chooses a room and gets paired with another student with great power and talent practically stamped in their foreheads. And if the school identifies their greatness, they give them the label _superior,_ and the school asks them to assist in these trainings. For the betterment of other students, the school had said. Right. Non-superiors are scared of them.

(“You can be one of them.”

“Renjun, can you hear what you’re saying? I can barely control my abilities.” Renjun detaches his pinky from his phone’s charging port and crosses his arms.

“Then learn how to control it, like a normal human being. You literally can overwhelm anyone with the blink of your eyes.”

Donghyuck has been through this and Donghyuck is tired. He says, “You know what I’m going to say, Injun.”)

Abilities Management class, which focuses on the student’s control of their powers, is ironically a class Donghyuck is excelling at, despite barely using his powers. Early on, he chose to train his speed and physique, instead of his powers, and somehow, he manages to snatch a grade of average to above average every time. So what on earth was he thinking when he suggested dueling a superior?

Because he wasn’t going to lose to Renjun, that’s why.

* * *

Donghyuck loses, and he completely blames it on his shoelaces. (He shouldn’t, it had nothing to do with it. He tripped because he failed to see an obstacle which happens to be instrumental to him tripping and Renjun jumping over him and sprinting towards the finish line.) It’s not really the first time for him to duel a superior, but he never wins against them. Dueling again would probably end up in similar events.

“And yet you bet a duel.” Renjun says, that smug motherfucker.

“To be fair though, I really didn’t think you’d win. With those short legs of yours – OW!” Renjun pokes Donghyuck with a bite of his electricity, just as he always does when Donghyuck offers his stupid (“witty!”) commentaries, which happens to be at least 70 per cent of the time.

Donghyuck and Renjun approach the rooms, all available for dueling and all with a superior waiting inside.

“So, my bro, which one should I choose?”

“Room B for Bro, bro.”

“Ok bro, wish me luck. Heal me when I’m injured,” Donghyuck says as he turns the knob.

Renjun throws his hand up in a salute and said, “Oh, if only you'd actually fight back. I’d be more worried for them by then, to be honest.”

* * *

When Donghyuck was fourteen and learning the politics of gambling with playing cards, his luck gave him a good deck of cards to throw on the table, with the percentage of winning high enough to lose sight of the possibility of losing. Spoiler alert, it turns out it was possible to fail even with great advantage of probability on your side, and with loud howling and screeching laughter, the game ended with Donghyuck in disbelief.

It was that one card that trumped him. 1 out of 52 cards of a deck, and the universe said _Let Donghyuck Suffer :)_ and that he did. Stepping in the room suddenly brings him back to those days, and it's like the universe is saying it to him again as he faces Mark Lee, one of the hundreds of superiors he could possibly face.

It’s not that he discriminates against the guy, but this Mark Lee with his little tuft of hair pointing up is practically feared by the majority in his campus. Understandable, really. Being known as the best of his generation, with his athleticism dangerously sharp and powers downright destructive. Donghyuck would probably feel more terrified if only he actually experienced his abilities first hand. _You Will, Enjoy!_ the universe is probably telling him right now.

The room is just as cold as he remembers. The red border encircling the dueling field is bright and the man supervising the match is standing a few feet outside the circle.

“Get in the center,” The facilitator says, and they do. “You both know the rules. One foot off the red border and you lose. Do whatever you want to do to win, but with any signs of serious injuries, and I cut off the game, got it?”

They both nod. Mark is looking at him, reminding Donghyuck of a kid seeing a game for the first time – a mixture of curiosity and a bit of calculation. Donghyuck looks back, tilts his head in question, and Mark starts to warm up.

His throws his first fire at Donghyuck, who is kind of anticipating it, so he dodges. Easy and simple, and definitely not as hot and devastating as Donghyuck expects from a superior, especially the esteemed Mark Lee.

A series of fire throws and dodges later, Dognhyuck realizes that Mark's attacks are increasing in speed. _This motherfucker’s totally playing with me_ , Donghyuck thinks, and charges forward, snaking his way through Mark’s flames. _Close enough_ , and Donghyuck goes for a punch, but warm hands catches his fist, and Mark’s other hand swings for a fiery underhand. Donghyuck is fast enough to twist his way out of Mark’s grasp, and tries to go for Mark’s legs, but apparently superiors weren’t that easy to beat. Figures.

The fight continued. After that short contact, Donghyuck had never been on the offense again. Mark’s flames are starting to get bigger and more intense, and Donghyuck is having a hard time keeping up. Despite all his training and work out, his legs are starting to feel heavy, his reaction time is getting slower, and his eyes start falling for distractions. Donghyuck is getting tired, and he knows he’s about to lose. He doesn't really expect to win. He expects to lose big time, explosively, body flying out of the red border and him falling with the hard thud, thoroughly defeated. But that’s not what’s happening. He is losing not because of Mark Lee’s fire, but because of exhaustion. And isn’t that just pathetic.

Annoyance made its way to Donghyuck as he crouches to avoid another scorching fire. Damn Mark Lee. Couldn’t have blown him off from the very beginning. He’s so capable of doing that anyway. All he's doing is playing him, making him run laps around him while he stands there, throwing his fireballs like an owner playing fetch, and Donghyuck is his dog.

Annoyance suddenly turns to anger.

Another wave of fire slices through the air and Donghyuck, with all his willpower, leans to the side. _God, that's too much_. The flames don't even get a chance to taste his skin but Donghyuck feels the heat radiating through his face. For a short moment he is face-to-face with the yellow, orange flames and Donghyuck is suddenly so entranced, and his rationality slips.

His eyes flicker gold, and suddenly, there’s flames everywhere.

His frustration is resonating through the room, and the fire was starting to engulf the place. At the distance, he hears Mark Lee shouting something. He turns to see the source of the voice, but there is smoke blocking his vision. It is getting overwhelming, and although no fire is touching him, he feels like he’s burning.

“Stop!” Donghyuck screams. He knows this is his doing; he did it again. This is why he never wanted to use his powers in the first place. The moment he lets it out, it gets harder for him to restrain it, and stop it from making things worse.

“Stop!” The thing about being unable to control what he can do is that it feels like he’s just blindly doing whatever he can to make something work. Like playing video games for the first time and pressing any buttons while praying things to work out. And sometimes, you get to press the right one.

Like right now. The flames calm down to a simmer. Smoke starts to clear, and Mark Lee is out of the red border. Donghyuck doesn’t know whether to feel shock or relieved. He looks at Mark, who is standing still, probably shocked. He walks towards the superior to offer his apologies, but he realizes Mark is looking at him hard, almost glaring at him.

And so Donghyuck changes his mind and turns around, says thanks when then the facilitator praises him for winning, and flees the room.

* * *

A month has passed after the duel, and much to Donghyuck’s annoyance, his roommate Jaemin wouldn’t shut up about it.

"And the superior's superior is here!"

Donghyuck drops his bag on a chair and closes the door to his dorm. On the floor of their small dorm room, Jaemin, Renjun and Chenle are lounging among a mass of chaos that are pizza boxes and textbooks, with laptop chargers snaking around them to complete the look. He scoffs at Jaemin's greeting. "Superior's superior? Don't be stupid. Give me a slice of that pizza."

Jaemin does. "You're the stupid one here, stupid. You beat Mark at the duel and you just move on as if you didn't just beat that one person everyone else is afraid of. You could've at least posted it online for clout? And did you really just inhale that entire slice?”

“Am hungee okee ha up.”

“I did not understand anything you just said.”

“He said he’s hungry, okay, shut up.” Chenle says, barely looking up from his game.

Thank you Chenle, for always understanding. For never bringing up Mark in a conversation. For translating for Donghyuck even in the hardest of times. Everyone deserves a Chenle in their lives.

“By the way, have you guys done your critical papers for social sciences?” Renjun says, going through the pages of his notebook. A chorus of no’s echoes the room, and Renjun’s lip stretches into a flat line, and says, “You guys are sad. It's due in three days.”

They go back to minding their own business. Donghyuck removing pepperonis off his pizza, Renjun typing on his laptop, Jaemin reading something from his textbook, and then Chenle having a sudden realization. He springs up from his seat with a grown.

“Fuck– ”

“Mind your fucking language, my dude.”

“– You just reminded me, I still have something to do!” Chenle gets up and fixes his shirt. "I'm leaving. Still got that group project to work on."

"Bye, Chenle!"

"You will be missed."

"Do good on your project!"

With a mouthful of pizza, Donghyuck points at Jaemin and says, "Don't tell him what to do!" He then faces Chenle, who's about to close the door and lovingly shouts, "Do good on your project! But only if you want to!"

Renjun chokes on his food and Jaemin just looks so done. "What? Consent is sexy," Donghyuck says.

"You know what would be sexier? If you actually acknowledge you were able to beat Mark Lee– AH!

Jaemin's screams with Renjun, who's pinky is touching his phone's charging port. His power of electricity really comes in handy when your phone's out of battery. 

But Donghyuck is tired of Jaemin always bringing it up, and with slight annoyance on his part, his irises flicker to a golden ring for a second, and Renjun releases more energy, electrocuting him and Jaemin, who's lying on his lap.

"Donghyuck!"

The said person raises his hands to his face, and apologizes. In effect, Jaemin sat up, rubbing his eyes, and says "No, it was my fault. I provoked you. Sorry 'bout that. Accept this pizza as an apology?"

Donghyuck stares at the pizza for two seconds before reaching out for the food, and it goes back to silence. Donghyuck knows the other two haven't moved on from the question, and he hasn't either, but he wants to have a good time with his friends, and if he doesn't say anything, they might stay like this for a long time.

“Okay, okay. So I won against him, right?”

Surprised, Renjun and Jaemin looks up at him, then nods. Donghyuck takes this as a cue to continue.

“And that is cool and all, but to be completely honest with you guys I wasn’t really sure what happened?”

“You already told us that,” Renjun says.

“Yeah, yeah, I know but that’s the thing. Obviously I have an idea on what I did, but things are still blurry for me, and you want me to boast about it? Besides,” Donghyuck wipes off the crumbs from his face, “I know he wasn’t using his full strength against me.”

“How would you know that?” Jaemin asked.

How can Donghyuck even answer that? It would be too rude if he were to say, his attacks weren’t as fierce as he was expecting? Wasn’t as cool? It seemed too normal? Too controlled?

So he just goes for, “I just knew." And before any of them gets the chance to ask him to expand, speaks again. "Anyway, any of you great at genetics? Or math, even? I forgot the formula for the probabilities…” 

He's not in the mood to talk about it. Not now.

* * *

Donghyuck failed his stat exam.

Maybe it was his fault for choosing to cram his reviews, or maybe because he lacked practice, or maybe he was also sleep deprived, or maybe just plain dumb. For whatever reason he got into this situation in the first place makes him really, really sad.

He opens the fridge in hopes of some leftovers, and by some divine mercy, there was a Tupperware at the very back. He reaches for it and opens it only to recoil in disgust. The food is spoiled, meaning no food, leaving Donghyuck frustrated, hungry, and feeling like a failure.

There is no divine mercy, god is dead.

So despite Donghyuck’s entire being that screams, _curl up in your bed and cry yourself to sleep,_ he leaves again, and walks to the pastry shop he passed by the other day. He doesn't realize how cold he feels until he enters the shop, the fluorescent lighting and the smell of freshly baked goods welcoming him. He sees the employee, with his yellow-striped apron over his white t-shirt, cradling the face of a baby whose eyes are wide, red and puffy. Poor child. He was probably wailing before Donghyuck entered.

He is about to approach when the employee turned, and fuck. It's him, that superior. Couldn’t this day get any worse? Donghyuck ignored the opportunity of his safety blanket just to appease his craving stomach, and now this?

Mark Lee straightens up and smiles with a customer service smile, about to welcome Donghyuck, but stops when he realizes who he was greeting. Mark's eyes widen.

Oh god. He's totally angry.

But then the smile reappears, and all of Donghyuck's initial thoughts fly out the window. It took all of his willpower to stop that little voice that says, _he is cute_. His willpower isn't enough.

"Hello, anything I can get you?"

Here's the thing. Donghyuck is having such a long day. And Donghyuck is emotional. And here he is, in a pastry shop that smells like his favorite kind of warmth and comfort. And the superior he beat is now his waiter, and he is cute and he stopped a baby from crying and not at all the scary, heartless, top-of-their-generation man that people keeps on buzzing about. And Donghyuck is about to cry.

Then Mark is suddenly reaching out for him. "Oh god, please, whatever it is, I’m so sorry.”

Damn. The tears didn’t even wait until Donghyuck gets home. Mark guides him to a seat, asks Donghyuck what he wants again, to which he weakly replies, “Red velvet cake,”

His words taste salty.

Mark leaves him in his misery to prepare his order, and Donghyuck just sits there, waiting for his cake and for his tears to stop falling. The door opens and the cool air wakes Donghyuck up in his rumination. The customer with a baby was just about to head out and leave the two of them alone in the pastry shop. Mark says his goodbye, and approaches Donghyuck to serve the cake. He was about to say his thanks when Mark sits down in front of him, and asks, “Are you alright?”

“I just cried whatchu think.” Donghyuck replies and sniffs.

Mark scratches his neck, awkward and unsure, and damn it. Donghyuck suddenly feels shy and apologetic.

“Sorry. I’ll leave you alone if that's what you want.” Mark says as he slowly stands up.

"No!" Mark's head whips back to look at him. "No, I'm sorry I just... I’m sorry.”

“Oh. It’s okay.” Mark returns to sit down again. “We all have our days, I guess.”

“Yeah. Today is totally my day.” Donghyuck slices a huge piece of the cake and shoves it in his mouth. “And I'm sorry. I just failed an exam and did you bake this? It's so good. It's the best. It's the best thing I tasted today. But is that your shops jingle playing in the background? I’m sorry to say this but I don’t like it. It’s repetitive but that’s okay because this cake is heavenly. And I–”

Something gets stuck on his throat and he realizes he's crying again. How pathetic. He has his mouth full of his favorite cake and tears just won't stop coming out. And right in front of Mark Lee, nonetheless. And he failed his statistics exam pretty bad, far from the passing score even. And he's crying over that stupid exam with cake in his mouth feeling pathetic and gobbled up and overwhelmed.

“Hey, hey. It's okay! Yeah I did bake this, thank you. You can have another, one if you'd like? Or croissant with Nutella? Kids love them so much.”

“Oh so I'm a kid now? Why, is it because I'm crying?” Donghyuck challenges.

“No, no!” And his voice decreases to a mumble, saying, “Oh god Mark Lee, you stupid, dumb dumb.”

And that's what wakes Donghyuck up from the overruling negativity that is possessing him. Obviously, he focused too much on his own failure, that he wasn't able to process several things that are happening.

  1. Mark Lee made a child smile. Probably likes children. Didn't look too annoyed when the baby's snot covered his hands.
  2. Mark works in a pastry shop. He makes really good red velvet cakes, which would probably be Donghyuck’s favorite red velvet cake from now on. Does his powers help a lot in the baking process? Azuma Kazuma's solar hands are shaking.
  3. DOnghyuck is in the company of someone who intimidates many. And he happens to make croissants with Nutella.
  4. Mark Lee absolutely does not know how to comfort people. Mark Lee is totally not cool, and far from scary.
  5. Mark Lee is very cute. And this Mark Lee he’s with is making him warm again. Not the burning kind like he experienced months prior in the dueling room.



And as the fifth realization is being processed in Donghyuck’s mind, along with the jingle that does nothing good for this world, Donghyuck finally feels calm.

* * *

He goes back to the pastry shop when he's feeling better.

Mark has served him with a smile again, and Dongyuck says his thanks, sits down, and eats his cake.

This becomes a routine: he goes to the shop a maximum of three times a week, curses the background jingle of the shop (he starts hearing it in his dreams), and curses Mark for always welcoming him with a smile. Donghyuck doesn't like it, it makes him weak. But he is starting to like Mark very much that he's almost willing to put that aside. Sometimes, Mark's friend Yukhei visits, strikes up a conversation with Donghyuck every now and then with hot chocolate in his hands, and he feels like he's found a quiet sense of belonging in the small pastry shop. 

When Yukhei leaves, Donghyuck downs his last cake, and teases, "Aw, your only friend is gone now."

"It's okay, Yukhei will probably come again tomorrow."

Donghyuck frowns at Mark's statement. "Wait, what?"

"What, 'what?'"

"He really is your only friend?"

Mark shrugs. "I mean, yeah? No one really talks to me. I think it's for being a superior and all that?"

Oh no. It's not only because of that. Does Mark know the student body's fear of him? Donghyuck never really questioned if Mark knows anything about his reputation. Actually, after spending so much time in this shop, eating cake (he trains extra hard after, to compensate for the weight he gains), being with Mark, he has almost forgotten that this is the same person that almost grilled him, slow-burn, in the duel months ago. He has almost forgotten that this is the same guy that glared at him after his defeat. The same guy that other students wouldn't dare touch. And Donghyuck may not be the bravest, or the most confrontational, but with Mark, he is daring.

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. I can be a friend too, if you would like."

Mark's smile is so bright, Donghyuck burns.

* * *

“So.”

Donghyuck raises his head from his laptop to look at Renjun. Mistake. Renjun had that smile on, the smile that says _hi, I know something about you but I will continue to smile at you politely until you give in and tell me exactly what I want to know, but no pressure!_

Okay so maybe Donghyuck was being dramatic, sue him he had a long day, as usual. But Donghyuck has known Renjun for quite some time now, and he knows that smile only appears during situations such as 1) he’s talking to his professors, 2) he’s hoping to snatch a discount at the other café where his brother, Sicheng, is a barista. (It always works, however its effectivity can be questioned due to the fact that Donghyuck is pretty sure Sicheng is already immune to the power Renjun’s smile holds. Donghyuck also knows that Sicheng is not immune to his brother so it just works because he’s Renjun and Sicheng may look cold-hearted but is actually super duper soft). And 3) When there is something he wants to know. Like now. Donghyuck can feel himself starting to sweat. But Donghyuck’s momma raised no coward. Chin up, putting his brave face on, Donghyuck responds. “So?”

“Your power boy.”

“What power boy? He’s not my power boy.”

“Ah, so there is a power boy! Mind telling me who ‘he’ is?” Damn it. Renjun’s smile got bigger now. “No. Absolutely not. We are not talking about this.” “Oh, we so are.” Maybe if Donghyuck pretends to not care, he’d stop. So he didn’t reply, and Renjun didn’t say anything more about it either. So when Renjun opened his mouth to say _brought you something, by the way,_ Donghyuck felt relieved. Wow, that worked.

“I haven’t shown you to this pastry shop, but I’m sure you’ll like this.” Renjun pushed a plate of a slice of red velvet cake. And the thing is, Renjun knows nothing about him meeting Mark, or going to the shop to meet Mark, or going to the pastry shop to study (never works. The only thing he ends up studying is the way Mark puts the cake in order, punches on the machine with every purchase, and serves his cakes with a soft smile that widens every time Donghyuck says thank you. Which makes Donghyuck want to say thank you all the time just to see it again. Thank you Mark. Also thank you God).

Renjun knows nothing about this. And having a bite of the cake makes him remember that god forsaken song, which results in two unfortunate events: accidentally humming the melody that is not even close to being worthy of being sung, and Renjun snapping his head up and seeing a tight line on Donghyuck’s lips – a sign that he is trying not to giggle.

Realization seemed to have dawned on the other boy because he stands up abruptly, hitting the table and startling Donghyuck in the process.

“OH GOD IT IS HIM–”

“NO.”

“IT SO IS.” It is. Oh my god yes it is him and Donghyuck knows this clearly but is definitely not ready to have it vocalized so he stood up and started pushing Renjun out his dorm.

“GET OUT AND LET ME SUFFER IN PEACE.”

“I KNEW IT OH MY GOD.”

“SHUT UP!”

“JENO WAS ACTUALLY RIGHT DAMN.”

“I WILL NOT – Jeno what?! Have you guys been –”

“I AM NOT LETTING THIS GO! I AM SO INTO YOU. OH MY GOD DONGHYUCK OF ALL PEOPLE–what is that?” The pushing suddenly stops.

The thing is, Donghyuck should not be relieved. Not yet at least. Not now, because although his momma raised no coward, maybe he still isn’t the bravest, and because he cannot even confess to Renjun how much he likes Mark so so much he feels like he’s the one burning, he is relieved. But he definitely should not, not when there are fire alarms going off.

“EVERYONE GET OUT OF YOUR ROOMS AND WALK CALMLY. CALMLY I SAID!” Donghyuck hears Doyoung, their RA, shout for the first time in his life. They open the door and students were already getting out looking confused. Renjun grabs his hand, now worried, and they walk out the building along with many others.

Outside, students were milling around in various degrees of clothing (Renjun commented that he is certain he could live the rest of his life without seeing Hendery in his batman onesie. Donghyuck thought it was cute). Aside from students occupying the parking lot outside their building, no signs of danger could be seen.

“Is this a drill? I don’t think anything’s happening,” He asks Renjun.

“No, it’s not. There’s a fire.”

“What? Where?” His head follows the general direction where Renjun’s finger is pointing at, towards the side of the building where Mark resides in. He doesn't see anything at first, but after squinting hard enough, he suddenly feels cold.

His head snaps back at Renjun, about to ask if he thinks anyone is there, if anyone is hurt, but when he sees Mark behind the boy he stops. There he is, the owner of the burning room, head low, glaring at the ground with Yukhei beside him in the same manner as the school security talks to them. Donghyuck didn’t think he would ever get scared of the boy with the yellow hoodie on, but there it is.

For the first time, with things regarding Mark, Donghyuck didn’t feel warm at all.

**Author's Note:**

> I did not expect to have a plan for this fic, but I do! And it was longer than i expected, so I decided to cut it up as a multichapter fic. 
> 
> This is for Lala, I apologize if this is not what you imagined this to be, but I hope you like it.
> 
> Merry Christmas! xx


End file.
